Santa feels the heat as Lapland buckles in Finland's record-breaking heatwave

After an unusually cold early summer, Finland has seen two weeks of temperatures topping 30C.

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It's not every day that Father Christmas finds himself briefing about the hazards of sunstroke at the Santa Claus village inside the Arctic Circle, but this summer northern Finland has seen temperatures hover around 30C for days on end.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute said on Friday that for the 14th day in a row a temperature of 30C was measured somewhere in Finland - the first time since records began in 1961.

As for Santa, he will be staying indoors at the tourist destination in the city of Rovaniemi - his bright red costume trimmed with fur is very warm.

"I'm only going out for a swim in the lake in the forest after 18:00, when the weather has started to cool off," he says.